Battery pack management systems exist in order to monitor battery usage of a device. Battery pack management systems may provide, for example, information regarding a remaining capacity of a battery and/or a remaining time for which the battery can provide power without recharge. Such systems may allow for example a device to save data before power is lost.
A simplistic way of monitoring the remaining capacity of the battery is monitoring the current drawn from the battery over a period of time. However this may be inaccurate because factors such as a self-discharge rate and coulombic efficiency may affect the level of charge in the battery.
Some systems may monitor the chemical make-up and weight of the battery in order to more accurately estimate a remaining capacity of the battery. For these systems to work, detailed information of the battery needs to be available regarding the chemical make-up of the battery and special hardware needs to be incorporated with the battery.